The emergence of new ways to advertise to and interact with consumers might seem like an opportunity to challenge the big players. However, believe it or not, Google have recently secured the US patent for location based advertising, and Facebook have secured the US patent for news feeds within social networks.

Although these patents were applied for years ago, they’ve both been confirmed in the past couple of months.

I’m no patent lawyer, but it could at least be argued that Twitter, Myspace and Google are all using news feeds covered by Facebook’s patent. Google’s patent is potentially even more wide-reaching.

Whilst there’s plenty of speculation on message boards, no one can really predict the extent to which Google and Facebook will seek to enforce their patents. Still, if I was launching a mobile ad network or trying to monetise a social network which happens to be based almost entirely on feeds, then I’d be a bit worried.

Alastair Boyle, Group Account Director